Friday 25 May Excursion to North WalesUK Railtours
'The Snowdonian' London, Milton Keynes and Rugby to to both Llandudno
Junction and Bangor. From Llandudno Junction coaches for the scenic
trip up the Conwy Valley to Blaenau where the greatest narrow gauge
journey of all begins, right the way through via Porthmadog to
Caernarfon, where coaches will be waiting for the short hop to Bangor
where our main line train is rejoined. Half the passengers will do the
'circuit' in the opposite direction.

July 2012
Saturday 7 July Excursion to North WalesUK Railtours
'Chester and the Pennines' Stevenage, Potters Bar, Finsbury Park to
Chester (break) and then through Wigan, Blackburn and Accrington
to
Copy Pit Summit, Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd before descending to
Wakefield and finally joining the East Coast Main Line to head homeward.

Changeover day

Richard Fleckney was up and about at 06:00 on 26 March to
record 57 316 calling with the final run of a Class 57/3 with the
Holyhead - Cardiff 'Premier Service' before the takeover by Class 67
locos which was to begin that evening with the northbound train.

Emerging from the morning mist at Steel Heath, Shropshire on the
way to Cardiff (Nigel Emery).

At Newport, nearing journey's end, and the end of another era (Paul
Harley). Note the five-coach consist.

47 786 was originally named by Roy's wife, Fiona, in a ceremony at
Waterloo back in 1994 to commemorate the wonderful entertainer's
charity work and campaign against smoking. It's somewhat sad and ironic
that non-smoker Roy died from lung cancer as a result of passive
smoking from trumpet playing in clubs. The nameplates were removed for
some reason, circa 1999, but the name was restored in
2008 after the loco was purchased by WCRC; it is nice to see the name
permanently in place now. [One of the original nameplates was
sold for £672 at an auction in 2011.]

Re-doubling to Wrexham

Wrexham Council has been telling the local press that the Welsh
Government has given the go-ahead for work to begin on restoring the
double track on the Wrexham - Saltney Junction route, which was singled
in the late 1980s, reportedly to reduce the cost of building a bridge
over the new Wrexham Expressway road. The cost of the re-doubling is
estimated at
£36.66m.

The line will be re-doubled for 7.5 miles from Saltney
Junction to the foot of Gresford bank, the remaining 1.5
miles to Wrexham will be single up the hill and
over the bridge which caused the line to be singled,
saving £450,000 at the time. The road from Wrexham
to Chester, known as the Wrexham Expressway A483 runs from Swansea
to Chester and is one of the busiest cross-border A-roads in North East
Wales. In addition to the high extra cost, we understand that
the Authorities have ruled out construction of a new double-track
bridge due to the volume of traffic which would have to be
diverted on to minor roads as foundation work would shut
the road for weeks, not just a simple 'one out,one in'
operation. The A483 already suffers from long tailbacks at the Chester
junction.

The scheme, which has been one of the council’s strategic rail
objectives and has been a
priority of Taith, the regional transport consortia for some time, is
being delivered under the Welsh Governments National Transport Plan, as
part of the North - South Wales journey time enhancement project.

Councillor David Bithell, Wrexham Council's Lead Member for Transport
and the Environment - and a Network Rail signaller who works at Croes
Newydd - told the press: 'The news of the investment from the Welsh
Government is excellent and indicates the importance of this route.
This has been one of our strategic rail objectives and our elected
members' rail group has lobbied directly and through Taith for
investment and improvements to this section of railway. When these
improvements are completed, we will have the potential to
investigate new stations and for increasing the number of trains from
hourly to every 30 minutes. With the consistent rise in passenger
numbers at all our stations we will continue to press for increased
services to more destinations.'

The scheme, funded by the Welsh Government, will also deliver further
journey time benefits by raising the line speed between Gobowen and
Shrewsbury to 90mph at a further cost of £9.8m. The works are
expected to be completed by early 2015.

Before the single-line to Wrexham - by Dave Marks

Before the Saltney - Wrexham line was singled, here's Gresford Bank in
March 1983, and 777Sir Lamiel climbing towards
Gresford, half way up the gradient. Unfortunately the train was
running late so I was down to 1/30 sec aperture.

An unidentified Class 56 passing the site of Rossett station about
1986-87 with steel coils for Shotton.
Interesting to note that both up and down loops were still in place
complete with lower quadrant signals at this date. Also that the
station yard goods shed is still standing (just visible above the loco
cab). The 45-gallon oil drum on the stocks was perhaps still in use by
the signal lampman; the stone sharpening wheel. may be have been used
by the plate-layers when they used scythes to mow the banks.

Class 31s in North Wales

In the early 1990s, in addition to the well-remembered Class 37/4s, the
fleet of Regional Railways North West also included a number of Class
31 locos, of the 31/4 sub-class which had been fitted with provision
for electrical train heating. These entered North West and North Wales
passenger service a little before the 37/4s were obtained from the
freight sector. The picture above is one of many in a new section of Dave
Sallery's North
Wales
archives. 31 410 and 31 439 are seen leaving
Prestatyn for Manchester on 17 July 1992. The train is newly
repainted in Regional Railways livery.

Dave's pictures also include shots of 31s on earlier North Wales
workings such as the TransPennine trains of the late 1980s.

North Wales Circular

Also new on Dave Sallery's site is an update for this year of the Cambrian Rail Cruise
pages, which are a guide for anyone wishing to make the
circular tour of North Wales by rail using the 'Ffestiniog Round Robin'
ticket.

Class 57 Miscellany

21 March saw the North Wales Coast line used for a test run from Crewe
to Llandudno Junction by DRS, with 37 259 and 57 011,
seen above after arrival (Stéphanie Durrant).

The 37 was on test after overhaul, but it was 57 011 attracting
attention departure with the return run from Llandudno Junction by
creating absurd amounts of 'clag'. Picture by Geraint Jones.

57 309Brains has now, like 57 304 shown in the
last issue, lost its name and branding in preparation for transfer from
Virgin to DRS; it was still working for Virgin on 24 March when it
hauled the Saturday Pendolino service to Holyhead, as pictured by Darren
Durrant at Shotton (above) ...

... and Richard Fleckney at Llanfair PG. We understand
that 57 302 Virgil Tracy is also to get the same treatment, if
it hasn't already. This leaves just three locos in Virgin Trains livery
with 'Thunderbird names' - 307 Lady Penelope, 308 Tin Tin,
and
308
Parker.

One of the two Arriva-liveried but unbranded 57/3s, 57 313,
stands at Cardiff on 22 March. Whether the four blue locos 313 - 316
will be repainted now they are no longer needed by Arriva (see heading
story) remains to be seen. Picture by Richard Fleckney.

The First Great Western company has a small fleet of four Class 57
locomotives, 57 602 - 605. for use on the London - Penzance
sleeper service. Richard Putley 'snapped' two of them in Old
Oak Common depot, west London, from a passing HST on 24 March. The blue
one is 57 603Tintagel Castle and the GWR-liveried
machine is 57 604Pendennis Castle. 57 601, the
prototype passenger 57, now works for West Coast Railway Company.

Summer Time Engineers - report by Mark Riley

The start of British Summer Time on Sunday 25 March saw an early
morning engineers train working as 6L53 Bidston East Junction - Crewe
Basford Hall. 66 151 is seen (above) just after 09:00 on the
approach to Wrexham General, top-and-tail with 66 139 and a
rake of assorted wagons with spent ballast.

With 66 139 (above) at the rear, the train ran up to
Croesnewydd and then onto the down main for Chester and Crewe.
Surprisingly this particular train kept almost perfect timing -
sometimes they are late or simply never run!

Carrog to Corwen progress - report by George Jones

The nine-day tracklaying exercise by the Llangollen Railway volunteer
workforce in February was successful in taking the rail head forward
towards Plas Bonwm farm. The track reached the site of the occupational
farm crossing in early March, 1500 metres west of the gate at Carrog.
Here it was necessary to pause whilst drainage was put into contain
farm yard slurry and prepare for the approach ramps for the crossing. A
further four track panels have been laid since, but work is now stopped
short of bridge 27 and a temporary stop block inserted in the location
known as Bonwm.

With deliveries of stone to the yard at Carrog activity shifted to the
ballasting of the new track from 12 March. The 08 shunter 13265 worked
the train of Trout hoppers with the Shark plough van through to the end
of the track and dropped ballast working eastwards towards Carrog. The
picture above (taken with permission and appropriate trackside
certification) shows the ballasting train with Class 08 08 shunter 13265
making a drop on the track immediately west of Carrog at the
Home signal on 22 March.

By 23 March Ballasting had reached Culvert 25 near the lay-by on the
A5. On completion of the ballasting exercise arrangements are in hand
for a hired-in tamper machine to work on the extension in preparation
for the formal inspection of the section by the end of March. An
independent inspection will be conducted for the issue of a licence to
allow for the carriage of the public on this section during the 'SSS3 gala' on
21-29 April and at other special events during the year.

For the time being, access is required via the gate near the former
Bonwm Halt to allow for the delivery of materials. No further track
laying will take place until the SSS3 gala is over. Preliminary work is
under way on the section beyond Bonwm towards Corwen and the staff
facilities at the former works site have been moved to a new location.

Much work has been done by the volunteer workforce on the lineside
fencing and vegetation clearance but, with the approach of the bird
nesting season, the latter activity will now cease. There remains
plenty of work for volunteers to undertake to assist this project, but
those wishing to become involved must be paid up members of the Llangollen
Railway
Trust, possess a Llangollen Railway Personal Track Safety
certificate and be registered as a volunteer.

The grant aid provided by the Welsh Assembly Government for the Phase 1
project has now been fully allocated to costs for the financial year
ended 31 March 2012. The Llangollen Railway Trust will now review the
costs of the remaining work to be done and examine the options for
attracting donations to provide for the matched funding to complete the
project.

Britannia in North Wales, 14 March

Pacific 70000Britannia travelled from Crewe to the
West Somerset Railway on 14 March with its support coach, as train as
5Z70. It was replacing 71000 Duke of Gloucester which is
undergoing repairs at Bury. George Jones photographed it
(above) passing Ruabon.

A water stop was arranged at Chirk ...

... to take on water from a hydrant adjacent to the station. Martin
Evans took its picture there.

Chirk Viaduct (Martin Evans).

During the stop, George Jones was able to get ahead of the train again,
and see it at Gobowen (above).

Sealand revisited - report by John Murray

On 20 March I made a return visit to the site of the Sealand RAF camp
adjacent to the former Great Central Railway Chester
Northgate to Dee Marsh line, now a cycleway. See the 14 March 2011
Notice Board. The former Sealand RAF camp is now a pile of rubble, as
seen in the picture above.

Above, the site of Sealand station, with platform lamps visible.

Rail gate into the former camp.

Part of a Detonator placer which would have been operated from the
signal box to stop a train in emergency.

Remains of the former railway are very much in evidence.

In the winter, reduced vegetation has exposed the level crossing which
used to allow aircraft to cross the tracks, controlled by long gates
which moved on their own tracks parallel to the line, and the entire
extent of it can be appreciated. The western end buffer stops are more
obscured that the eastern end and not in as good condition, but both
buffer stops for the gate at the eastern end can be seen in the view
above.

Above: Northern side tracks leading to buffers (left) and Entire extent
of the northern side tracks showing buffers at both ends (right).